For more than 25 years, caring for people with cancer has meant something very special to ONS member Clara Beaver, MSN, RN, ACNS-BC, AOCNS
®. In 1991, her grandfather was diagnosed with breast cancer. Since then, working in oncology has been near and dear to Beaver’s heart. Today, she works as a manager of patient care services in the ambulatory clinics at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, MI.
Scientists and those treating breast cancers already know a deleterious mutation in BRCA1 or BRCA2 greatly increases the lifetime risk of developing breast cancer, but until recently it remained unclear whether a correlation between lifestyle and breast cancer existed. A group of Irish researchers has now found unhealthy lifestyles may be a significant contributing factor to the increased penetrance of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations. They presented their results on Thursday, December 8, during the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
Breast cancers contain cells that act and behave in a similar manner to stem cells, and these cancer stem cells (CSCs) bring about metastasis and contribute to treatment resistance.
More than 25% of patients with locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) will relapse during their first five years after treatment, but Canadian researchers have developed a viable list of five risk factors that may predict relapse after neoadjuvant therapy. The University of Ottawa researchers presented the results of their analyses on Thursday, December 8, during the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, noting that several other groups have also researched prediction tools.
If patients with multiple myeloma are noncompliant with treatment, it can have “devastating consequences on the clinical prognosis,” said Dale Hanna of the Lash Group in Fort Mill, SC. His team presented its evaluation on the impact of a patient-centered program on IV therapy compliance among patients with multiple myeloma on Saturday, December 3, at the 58th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition in San Diego, CA.
Researchers have begun to assess data produced from Internet search engine analysis to better understand the health concerns and awareness of patients and nonmedically savvy individuals. Specifically, Google Trends has increased as a data source because it compiles every Google search worldwide from 2004 to the present, aggregating results into a publicly viewable data site. Adeel M. Khan, MD, MPH, and colleagues at the Cancer Institute at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, specifically examined nonmedical and patient Internet users searches related to hematologic malignancies.
Although adolescents and young adults (AYAs) who have survived classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) often have substantial treatment-related morbidity that can lead to premature death, Ana Xavier, MD, and colleagues, in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, questioned whether recent changes in treatment have reduced excess mortality among long-term survivors of AYA-cHL. They presented their research on Monday, December 5, at the 58th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition in San Diego, CA.
Treatment and outcomes for multiple myeloma (MM) have been greatly improved by the introduction of parenteral chemotherapy and novel oral agents such as lenalidomide and thalidomide. However, the cost of those agents typically exceeds $5,000 per month, which continues hinder their accessibility, according to Adam J. Olszewski, MD, in the Division of Hematology-Oncology at Alpert Medical School at Brown University, in Providence, RI. He discussed the ongoing financial difficulties for patients, insurers, and healthcare systems on Monday, December 5, at the 58th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition in San Diego, CA.
Cancer correlates with negative family relationships for pediatric patients with cancer, according to new research presented on Monday, December 5, at the 58th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition in San Diego, CA. The finding is based on data from a newly developed patient-reported outcome tool, recently created as part of the National Institute of Health’s Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) to evaluate children’s perspectives on family relationships.
If circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) can be detected in an adjuvant setting after both surgery and chemotherapy for early-stage breast cancer, patients are at high risk of early relapse, according to a proof-of-principle study. Researchers with the Institute of Cancer Research in London presented their results of their longer follow-up series on Wednesday, December 7, during the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
